4. Nurture Your Spirituality

Last week I got to go home and visit my family.  My mom and I worked hard to finish all the wedding planning we could think of.  With so much wedding on my mind, I suddenly remembered something from when I was probably about 14.  So I began the daunting task of searching for my boxes in my parent's storage room until I found what I was looking for.  Behold, the wedding time capsule:

Holy smokes!  Words cannot describe this little gem.  Allow me to show some snippets to you.

What I wanted my dress to look like...

What I wanted my colors to be...

How many kids I wanted...

HOLY SMOKES THAT'S A LOT.

A note to my future fiance...

And even a note to myself...

Who knew a little can could have so many treasures in it?  Anyways...

How does this relate to "Way to Happiness" number four?  Well, when I was looking through those boxes of my old things, I couldn't believe how much stuff was church related.  I had Personal Progress jazz all over the place.  Things from camps.  Notes I'd written to myself containing goals, thoughts, and impressions all relating to the church.  After laughing at my past self for such over exuberance I couldn't help but pity my present self.  What happened?  Why am I not still writing those notes?  Why am I not still striving to grow stronger in the gospel?  Some time, somewhere, I just plum plateaued I guess.  And everyone knows that a spiritual plateau is really just a very, very gradual slope downwards.  

So what did I do to nurture my spirituality?  Well, I decided the best thing for me was to get to know someone a little bit better.  I got to know him so well back in High School after reading Lloyd C. Douglas' book "The Robe", but I feel like my firm relationship has dwindled to more of an acquaintance.  So I went out and bought this book and have been studying from it everyday after reading my scriptures.

I cannot describe how amazing it is and I'm only a few pages in.  I highly recommend it.  Perhaps alongside a dictionary.  

Next thing I've done is hopped aboard the indexing train.  

And indexing is amazing!  It is so easy to do and kind of addicting.  All you do is type out the fields you see on an old document.  Sometimes the handwriting can be quite tough to read, but you feel so awesome after you translate it.  And it's also super interesting.  Lately I've been doing death certificates from Texas.  It's neat to figure out things about these people you're indexing, such as how old they were, how they passed away, what they did for a living, and so on.  Seriously, start indexing.  You'll love it.  I'm even starting to feel like my old spiritual high school self.

Now perhaps you started reading this thinking I was going to talk more about trendy spirituality.  You know, like yoga and month long silence retreats into the Himalayas.  Nope, sorry.  But I can tell you this.  Some of the most spiritually insightful and uplifting moments have happened sitting down on a rock all tired and sweaty looking out at this:

I'm no scientist or spiritually affluent person, but I personally testify to you that the moments you will feel best spiritually are when you have been using your body and when you are made to feel small by the natural grandeur around you.

And that is how I nurture my spirituality.  And I sure do feel happy.